Cost of economic downturn shows itself in domestic court

MODESTO, Calif. — Court workers call the Modesto law enforcement officer "a sweetheart," even as he transformed into a man who became explosively angry and punched through walls in his house.

He was losing his wife. He'd already lost his house and his overtime pay. "All I've ever done is work for my family," he told a court mediator, his anguish and frustration growing. "That's what men do."

Officials say anger over the economic meltdown and its impact on families is spilling through the courthouse doors.

As economic conditions have worsened, more parents are fighting over custody of their children and there are more reports of domestic battery from homes where there was no pattern of it before, court officials said. Numbers from the Stanislaus County Superior Court illustrate the extent of the problem:

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